Meet Yang Wanling

Wan Ling is a passionate teacher who always looks for ways to help the weaker students in her class. While teaching at a polytechnic, she encountered many students with very weak language proficiency. She feels it is important for learners at
 any level to build a strong reading foundation in order to progress. When she was offered to undergo training to teach reading through phonics, she saw the opportunity to help the weaker students. However, knowledge of phonics alone is insufficient as she quickly realised that there are many children who need special guidance and help. Using different interactive teaching methods, fun games and hands-on activities has helped to encourage and promote effective learning among these children. She hopes to help more children who needs special guidance. Wan Ling obtained her TESL (Teaching English as Second Language) qualification in 2003 and has been teaching young adult learners in Malaysia ever since. During her teaching career as a full-time lecturer at a polytechnic, she also taught at various institutions on a part-time basis. This has allowed her to gain experience in teaching students of different levels, namely, primary, secondary and university.

In 2009, she was awarded a scholarship to pursue a postgraduate degree in New Zealand. She completed her Master in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) with distinction at Victoria University of Wellington. With her experience and newfound knowledge, she was actively engaged in the curriculum development for new programmes at the polytechnic. In 2015, together with two other colleagues, she published a book, entitled “Lesson Ideas for Communicative English” under Oxford Fajar. Tested materials, as well as fun and effective lessons are shared in the book. The main objective of the book is to encourage teachers to move away from chalk and talk method.

In 2017, she relocated to Singapore. While taking a break from teaching, she took up a course on clinical hypnosis to better understand how the mind works. This has given her a new perspective towards learning. Subsequently, she joined a language centre, teaching English to working adults. In 2019, she underwent training to be accredited as a reading trainer, enriching herself in phonics and early childhood pedagogy. Thus, she is now proficient in teaching all age groups. She strongly believes that teaching involves continuous improvement on the part of the teacher. Consequently, she continuously challenges herself to teach different groups of students and to undergo training to gain more insight into teaching. She is currently into special needs education to complement her teaching experience.